Ted Jackson/The Times-PicayuneLSU senior quarterback Jarrett Lee has completed 64.4 percent of his passes for 624 yards and six touchdowns with just one interception for the 4-0 Tigers.

After a Baton Rouge grand jury decided Wednesday against second-degree battery charges against Jefferson and Johns -- the former's charge was reduced to simple battery, a misdemeanor, and the latter's charge was dismissed -- LSU lifted their indefinite suspensions in good conscience, and Miles welcomed them back to the team, now ranked No. 1 in the nation.

It was smart for Miles to wait for resolution, given the magnitude of the distraction. He got it Wednesday when the grand jury looked past felony charges and opted for a lesser charge and dismissal, and obviously those conclusions favored the players and the program.

But just as much, it seems clear that after the grand jury heard both sides of a "they said-they said" situation, it decided that the evidence -- or specifically the lack of it -- couldn't support a felony charge.

And with that, the former starter (Jefferson) and reserve (Johns) get to move from the courthouse to the penthouse with the top-ranked Tigers.

Jefferson, especially, gets to see where he fits these days, with Jarrett Lee having taken over the starting quarterback position about a week before the season opener and having done nothing to warrant a drop on the depth chart.

A persuasive argument can be made that Lee, a senior who has completed 64.4 percent of his passes for 624 yards and six touchdowns with just one interception for the 4-0 Tigers, has given LSU the steadiest quarterback play in the SEC so far.

That's no small feat, considering LSU already has played three teams that were ranked at the time, each game away from Tiger Stadium, and that the last time Lee played extensively in a season, as a redshirt freshman, he threw 16 interceptions and seven were returned for touchdowns.

That doesn't mean Jefferson doesn't have a place, and Miles essentially said he does. The fact is Jefferson was the undisputed starter before being suspended after he was charged for his alleged role in a bar fight. And everyone in the program was expecting Jefferson, who is 20-7 as a starter at LSU, to have a senior season to remember.

And Jefferson, like Lee, had benefited from the addition of quarterbacks coach Steve Kragthorpe. And supported by LSU's splendid defense, he also wouldn't have needed to be the second coming of Tim Tebow or Cam Newton in order to help the Tigers remain in the national championship race.

Now, though, what seems fair is that he becomes the second coming of Lee, at least for the time being.

Just as Lee came off the bench for spot duty last season to spell Jefferson when Jefferson was ineffective or when the coaching staff had a specific series of plays it wanted to run for Lee, there's no reason Jefferson can't fill that role for the Tigers since his legal status has been clarified.

There's no reason for LSU to not take advantage of what Jefferson has to offer -- and before anyone goes too extreme and suggests Jefferson never should play again, let's remember that he has done all that was required by law, defended himself vigorously and served his time away from the team.

That's plenty. Now, it's time for him to play.

Would Jefferson's spot duty present the possibility that chemistry could be affected?

No more than it was affected last season, when he and Lee shared snaps. And Jefferson has even more game chemistry/experience with this offense than does Lee. Last season, LSU milked the most out of each -- sometimes it seemed the equivalent of trying to draw blood from turnips -- and managed to finish 11-2, even though neither Jefferson nor Lee did much of anything to make anyone believe he was a legitimate starter.

Kragthorpe, apparently, has made a world of difference for Lee. Likely, it's the same difference he'd made for Jefferson, when evaluators were effusive in their praise about his improvement at the Manning Passing Academy, and when teammates and coaches swore he'd made a positive jump during LSU's spring and fall work.

That work would give LSU one of the best No. 2 quarterbacks in the nation, a player coaches would have no hesitation turning to if Lee's production tailed off for any reason.

And it'd give the Tigers a ready-made starter if Jefferson is needed to fill that role, too.

How he'll be used will be up to Miles. What's most important to Jefferson is that, again, he's allowed to play ball.